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March 12, 2010

The Seven Year Itch

We're coming up on seven years of living way out here in the French countryside. Seven.

Husband grew up in New York City. I spent my entire adult life living smack dab in the middle of urban spaces - Seattle, San Francisco, New Orleans. I never had the desire to live in a rural setting.

Now we live in a village of 418 people.Which is beautiful. Idyllic. Full of friendly neighbors and a tranquil, charming village life.

Lately though, we've both been craving a change of pace, we're wanting some new adventures. It's time to head to a city. We want to go see films, go out to art galleries and restaurants, see some live music, get back into the general buzz of an urban landscape.And we miss take out! The luxury of being able to call for Chinese food, pizza, etc. while lazing about the house, wearing slippers, hair up in a messy ponytail, no make-up. (heck, just getting some decent Chinese food, delivered or not, would be a luxury!)

27 comments:

In Paris, you might be able to get real Chinese food (or at least on closer to what you have known in the US) but most of Chinese restaurants in France are in fact Vietnamese or Cambodian. And most restaurant are still not offering home delivery take away. You normally have to go and collect the food at the restaurant or traiteur (except for pizza).

Lately I've been hankering after Marsaille. Don't know about the Asian food situation, but there'll certainly be lot's of cous cous and other North African goodies to sate your appetites. Also ffrom there you can fairly easily get almost anywhere interesting - even Estonia.

Funny, I was chatting with a friend yesterday, and she was saying she had the seven-year-itch, too! Now that spacedlaw mentions it, I can't think of any Chinese delivery in town, but you can definitely get Indian food delivered! ;)

BettyIf we end up in Montpellier you could come down and we could have shopping weekends! If it is Paris, you could come up (you have to for work anyway) and we could have shopping weekends! We're interested in checking out Lyon...it looks pretty amazing. And much cheaper than Paris. But still...Paris....We'll discuss on Tuesday, but where ever we end up, you always have a place to stay!

Greetings from Greece! Last summer me and my husband made a motorcycle tour of southern France. After that, we stopped in Lyon for a while. I remember telling my husband that Lyon is a city where I could live, Neither too big or too small, nice food, 2 rivers, the TGV, ...Interpol and Euronews headquarters...!!! :-)

Paris....Paris.....Paris!!!! the three years i spent there were fabulous. always something to do....and if you want to slow it down, you can always go away for the weekend. where ever you decide, you can't go wrong - you are in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

what a tough choice! I live in Lyon and really enjoy the life here. Its got pretty much everything, you can go to the lakes nearby (Aix Les Bains) for the beach; skiing in the winter, walks in the Beaujolais and at the same time you can enjoy city centre living, great restaurants (including authentic Thai and Chinese which I just love), chinatown if you want to cook yourself and great public transport system.

If I didn't live in Lyon I would either live near Montpellier or in the mountains.

Paris must be great but for me the weather is a downer. I know the weather is bad pretty much everywhere at the moment but Parisian weather is too much like the UK for me, whereas in Lyon I've really the impression that I'm living someplace else.

The comments on Lyon have made me start wanting to go there. When I was in school in Besancon I planned to visit but for some reason ended up in Strasbourg. That's an interesting city too, but very touristy in the summer and full of Eurocrats - sometimes in the winter.

I believe Chinatown is in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. I will be moving to Paris in June with family of 5 (two parents, 3 kids!) and will certainly let you know once I get there whether there's any good Chinese food to be found!

But seriously I think it is necessary for us all to experiance different places and ways of living as you progress through life. I have been to the citys where you have lived and they are all great in their own ways. The three that you suggested are all up there in my list.

It will be very interesting for us all to live vicarously through you on your decision. It would be very interesting to hear your different thoughts as they invariably go back and forth.

One interesting thing I have noticed is when you have photogrpahed Paris your "photographic skill" seems to increase - and I dont think that is neccesarily to do with the subject matter but a sense of place.

are you planning to sell up completley in this area - or may you retain this base as a "vacation property?"

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